VOL. XVIII. NO. 13. 



AND HORTICULTURAL REGISTER 



113 



[•"rom the b'armer's Cabinet. 



A SOURCE OF COMFORT. 



"It conies ho:nc to every man's business and bo- 

 som, liticking closer to liim than a brother, and is 

 an article which no good f.nnner should be without." 

 " .\h,"' said his friend, "I see you mean a good 

 wife !" " No," said the farmer, " [ mean flannel 

 next the skin ! — the next best thing to a <rood wife : 

 that is an affair of the heart, and is not, we see, af- 

 fected by any outward ciicnmstanccs — but all 

 things else, I conceive, are governed to a very 

 groat extent, by the general influence of flannel 

 )iert the akin. It keeps up a state of insensible 

 perspiration, without which, the doctors will tell 

 you there can be no health, and wiihout health, 

 there can be but little happiness. In this remarka- 

 bly changeable climate, with the thermometer mak- 

 ing such plunges as .ilmost to endanger the 

 quicksilver tube, how necessary is it that an animal 

 so exposed to its influence as man — exposure suf- 

 ficient to kill a horse — should be protected by some 

 means from the fearful cousequences ; and in flan- 

 nel he has exactly that protection which he needs ! 

 In very hot weather, a very thin texture formed of 

 this singular substance, adds very little to the heat, 

 but forms an impenetrable shield against the cold 

 chills which are often experienced, even at the mo- 

 ment we are complaining of the hot blasts which 

 are raging round us ; while in the severest cold of 

 winter, when a man would not turn a dog out of 

 doors, as the saying is, he walks forth under about 

 a dozen folds of this blessing, in the form of under 

 shirt, waistcoat, defcnsibles, under-coat, upper-coat, 

 cap and overalls, grinning at the north wind, and 

 defying the tempest ! 



It is a most remarkable property of flannel, that 

 although it prevents the ingress of cold, it seetns, 

 in a measure, to facilitate the egress of heat, and is 

 an this account admirably calculated to form the 

 clothing of that animal on whom alone it might be 

 iaid to be found, and which, without this wise or- 

 lination of "Him who docth all things well," would 

 36 totally unable to move or exist in hot weather 

 inder a covering from four to nine inches thick, of 

 1 substance which, of the texture even of gauze, 

 •fill enable a man to defy the elements! It is truly 

 I wonderful ordination of nature, which ought to 

 all forth, every day of our lives, the sacrifice of a 

 grateful heart! but the blessings of life, coming in 

 he humble guise of -i flannel shirt, are very apt to 

 le overlooked — so true is it, thaS our greatest bless- 

 ngs are of every day occun'ence, and so common, 

 hat, like the air we breathe, we might be said to 

 espire them — too often with careless and unthank- 

 ul hearts." 



Thus spoke my friend, an adjoining farmer, — 

 leed I add, he is the best husband, father, friend 

 md manager in the neighborhood ! J. A. C. 



Kingston, Ulster co., X. Y.,./lug. 29, 1839. 



THOUGHTS ON FAR.VHNG. 



I have based the following estimates on the sup- 

 position that each acre of best parts of our soil 

 should be made to produce at least half its great- 

 est or maximum product ; that whether wo cultivate 

 more or less, it is the truest economy to cultivate 

 it well. What the maximum product of particular 

 spots in a particular town or village may be, I do 

 not, of course, undertake to determine ; but the real 

 ma,vimuin product, so far as I know, in Europe or 

 .America, is 1.50 bushels of corn, and 1000 bushels 

 potatoes to the acre. I have supposed, I say, that 

 each arable acre of New England soil ought to be 

 made to produce at least half its maximum product ; 

 and that each tenth acre of land among us ought to 

 be cultivated with these. Each tenth acre, there- 

 fore, among us, ought to be made to produce 7.5 

 bushels of corn or 500 bushels of potatoes. This 

 being premised, I make the following references 

 and conclusions. 



If one-tenth of each square mile in this coontry 

 were cultivated as it ought to be with corn or pota- 

 toes, the produce — admitting the remaining ninc- 

 tenths to be sufficient for pasturage and other pur- 

 poses — would sustain an immense population. 



One-tenth of a square mile is 16 acres. Now 

 the produce of half of this in corn and half in po- 

 tatoes at the rate per acre I have assumed above, 

 would be KiOO bushels ofcoj-n and ]f!,000 bushels 

 of potatoes. Now ten bushels of corn or forty of 

 potatoes, properly cooked, is an abundant supply of 

 food for an individual, upon the average, for a sin- 

 gle year. Yet at this rale each square mile should 

 sustain a population of 500 souls, and the whole 

 State of Massachusetts estimated as it is to contain 

 4,644,000 acres of land, a population of 4,063,360. 

 And if the United States contain within their terri- 

 torial limits 2,000,000 square miles of land — and 

 tliey probably do more than this — one-tenth of it 

 ought to be made to sustain 1,200,000,000 inhabi- 

 tants, or a population much greater than that of the 

 whole world at the present time. Not even China or 

 Hindostan taking the whole country together, sustain 

 a population one-fourth as great. — Dedhiim Patriot. 



A Bottomless Meadow. — As the line of the Glas- 

 gow and Ayrshire railway crosses frqm Ayrshire in 

 Renfrewshire, there is a meadow about three miles 

 long, belonging to Mr W. P.atrick, through which 

 it has to pass, and where it has to be embanked 

 four or five feet high. The contractors lately en- 

 tered upon it and commenced the embankment, but 

 were not a little surprised to find that their labors, 

 like those of Tantalus, threatened to be of an end- 

 less nature ; as having embanked 30 yards, they 

 found that about 19 had sunk or subsided below 

 the level of the line. They next day repeated their 

 work, re-forming the embankment to the ordinary 

 level ; but strange to say, the undersoil again gave 

 way, and although they have since continued day 

 and night to heap earth upon the spot, the greedy 

 bowels of the meadow receive it as it is applied, 

 and the workmen are, not without reason, despair- 

 ing of finding a solid foundation, 'j his most sin- 

 gular phenomenon attracted a large party of engin- 

 eers to the spot on Saturday week, who could ac- 

 count for it in no other way than that the meadow 

 is floating on water ; which supposition seems the 

 more feasible, that the ground rises on each side of 

 the sinking portion, and splits into deep cracks or 

 bogs. The people of the district have flocked in 

 hundreds to take ocular demonstration of the fact 

 — Scotch paper. 



Ma§sachiisett8 Horticnitnral Soolci>-. 



KXHIBITION OF FRUITS. 



Saturday, Sept. 21 , 1839. 



The display of fruit this morning was very 

 good, and it was contributed as follows: 



From R. Manning, Esq., Salem : Croft Castle 

 and Sharp's Emperor Pears. Also, Red Magnum 

 Ronum (London Hort. Soc. Catalogue,) and St 

 Catharine Plums. 



From VVm. Oliver, Esq., Dorchester: Bartlctt or 

 William's Bon Chretien and St. Ghislain's Pear, 

 and beautiful specimens of President Peach. 



From Otis Johnson, Esq., Lynn : Zinfendal 

 Grapes, {superior specimens;) and Beurre Roniain 

 Pear. 



Superb specimens of Seedling Peaches were 

 presented by Col. M. P. Wilder, from the garden 

 of Edward Sharp, Esq., Dorchester. 



Mrs Bigelow, of Mtdford, presented three bask- 

 ets of Peaches, equal to any that have been exhib- 

 ited this season : they were Bigelow's Rareripe ! 

 iMelacaton, and a natural peach. 



From James L. L. F. Warren, of Brighton, two 

 varieties of Seedling Peaches ; also. Royal Ken- 

 sington and George IV. Peaches: William's Bon 

 Chretien and Washington Pears, 



Mr Thomas Mason, East Boston, exhibited Black 

 Hamburgh Grapes and Bromfield Nectarines. 



From N. Webster, Esq., Haverhill, two varieties 

 of Plums. 



Very fine Peaches were exhibited by Mr C. Gol- 

 derm.ann, of Chelsea. 



Mr J. A. Kenrick, of Newton, exhibited Cutter's 

 Rareripe Peaches. 



Seedling Peaches were presented by Mr Joseph 

 W. Newell. 



John C. Lee, Esq., of Salem, exhibited speci- 

 mens of the Buflfum Pear ? 



Extra fine Peaches were exhibited by Mr James 

 Hill, jr. 



Mr John Dunklee, of Brighton, exhibited a bas- 

 ket of very beautiful Peaches, called the Pine Ap- 

 ple ? presumed to be the old Yellow Rareripe : they 

 weighed seven ounces each. 



Mr Park, of Roxbury, exhibited Bartlett or Wil- 

 liam's Bon Chretien Pears. 



J. G. Coolidge, Esq., of Cambridge, exhibited two 

 baskets fine Yellow Rareripe Peaches. 

 For the Committee, 



JAMES L. L. F. WARREN. 



EXHIBITION OF VEGETABLES. 



Saturday, Sept. 28, 1839. 

 Hon. John Lowell, Roxbury, exhibited Rohan 

 Potatoes of very superior size and form. 

 For the Vegetable Committee, 



J. L. L. F. WARREN, Ch'mn. 



Fiftythree bushels of wheat to the acre. — Edmund 

 Richmond, of Euclid, near Cleaveland, Ohio, raised 

 this season from two acres of land, one hundred 

 and seven bushels of excellent wheat. The soil is 

 clay, and is known by farmers as beech clay, a 

 kind of soil that heretofore has been thought not 

 very good for wheat So much for proper cultiva- 

 tion. 



In East Tennessee wheat is 37 1-2 cents per 

 bushel, and farmers a short time since, were con- 

 tracting to sell corn afler harvest, at 12 to 18 cents 

 per bushel. — Bast. Times. 



